Joe
"Fingers" Brown-"We
Stole to Live" - the single best POW
book on this camp. Contains pictures of over 90% of the men. [Best
Book]Ed
Hale's Book"First Captured, Last Freed"- Hale was a crewman
aboard the USS Penguin
and enslaved at Hirohata POW Camp.Don
Binns -"A Survivors Story: An American POW in Japan
during WW II" - E-book written by Navy man stationed at
Piti Navy Yard."Notify Alec
Rattray"by Meg Parkes from the diary
of her father, Atholl Duncan, British officer sent to Zentsuji
& Rokuroshi. Excellent compilation of information and
explanation of diary entries. Sequel:"A.A.
Duncan is OK"is also
available.

Berton Arthur Barrett, II Corps of Engineers, Philippines

(Photos and story courtesy of Berton Arthur Pollock)

My grandfather, whom I never met, Berton Arthur
Barrett, is honored on your Guam timeline. I am his namesake, Berton
Arthur Pollock. He was a Major and Civil Engineer. When captured in the
Philippines, he was forced to walk the Bataan Death March. He marched
and survived, from what my mother and grandmother tells me, only to be
placed in Japanese prisoner of war camp. He died of what we suspect was
intussusception, an intestinal disorder like you noted. I've done quite
a bit of research on the subject and what we suspected caused it,
malnutrition, may not have been the cause, but a major contributing
factor.

I have his official burial flag that they draped over his coffin during
his burial with full military honors at Woodlawn cemetery in Elmira,
NY, his hometown. The flag is in immaculate condition. It only has 48
stars on it. We found it high up, tucked away in a corner at my
grandmother's, the recipient of the flag during the ceremony. The flag
was neatly tucked in a brown paper bag with the words, written on the
bag in pen:

"THIS FLAG WAS USED AT THE
FUNERAL OF MAJ. BERTON ARTHUR BARRETT W.W. II, BURIED AT WOODLAWN
CEMETERY 1949. IT IS TO BE GIVEN TO BERTON ARTHUR POLLOCK - HIS
GRANDSON & NAMESAKE --Marcia Barrett Bowes"

The majority of my family was captured in the Philippines. My
grandmother, mother, aunt and uncle were transferred to Santo Tomas
concentration camp operated by the Japanese to house American and
British troops. They lived off what little the Japanese provided and
what else they could scrape up to eat, which I am sure you don't want
the details of.

My mother told me a story that her mother used to sleep on the cold
ground and make my mother sleep on her back so she could keep warm. My
mother was only six years old at the time. She shared many stories with
me, but her favorite is when an American bomber pilot flew low and slow
over the camp on February 3, 1945, and dropped something. It was his
flyer's goggles with a note inside that simply read “Roll out the
barrel, Christmas is coming. We’ll be with you Sunday or Monday!” They
referenced Christmas to hope to confuse the Japanese, since they
wouldn't know what it meant. But the prisoners who read it first knew
exactly what it meant.

American forces liberated the camp in February 3, 1945. My mother says
she has a vivid memory of swinging on the main barrel of one of the
tanks that liberated the camp.

I salute every veteran out there
who was fought for any war, if it's declared a war or not, and give
thanks to our veterans even if they never saw battle, and give thanks
to every one of them for their service to the United States.

I'm
still trying to find out more about Maj. Berton Arthur Barrett.
Unfortunately, his records were damaged or destroyed by a fire in the
National Personnel Records Center on July 12, 1973. About 10 years ago,
I requested a copy of his records, not knowing about the fire. They
told me about the fire and said they would try to recover what they
could for a $90 fee. I'm going to look into it again and see what my
options are. I would absolutely love to know of Berton Arthur Barrett's
accomplishments, medals, decorations, and anything I can find.